Big road changes headed for busy stretch of Beaver Run Road, DOT says
Just eight months after Upatoi residents were greeted with the area’s first restricted crossing U-turn at Macon and Jenkins roads, the Georgia Department of Transportation announced Friday that construction begins Monday on two more devices to make the same road safer.
The barricades are waiting for construction to start on Beaver Run or Georgia 22 at Beaver Trail and the nearby intersection of Georgia 22 at Wynfield Way/Mallard Drive in Midland. Both intersections are sandwiched between a busy stretch of road between Flat Rock and Psalmond roads.
The restrictions reduce crashes at intersections by preventing dangerous immediate left turns and straight-through driving where motorists must navigate through intersections where traffic is moving at a high rate of speed in both direction.
Similar to the construction seven miles away, the restriction prevents left turns and driving through the intersection on the busy highway. After the work is completed with a 4-inch sheet of concrete, drivers on the south side of Beaver Run Road will be forced to turn right, travel more than a block to Psalmond Road and make a U-turn to travel westbound.
Residents who turn onto the road from Mallard Drive and want to go eastbound instead of westbound must make a right turn then follow a new U-turn to go eastbound on Beaver Run or to make a right turn onto Wynfield Way. Fatal crashes have decreased by 70 percent and injury crashes have decreased 42 percent in areas where these types of restrictions have been installed. Some residents who have pushed for a traffic light at Psalmond Road to slow traffic aren’t pleased with the move to the restrictions. “I am also extremely concerned that two previous traffic studies have been done for the Psalmond Road/Beaver Run intersection and both have deemed the intersection not worthy of a signal,” a Woobriar Lane resident said to the city’s engineer. “My hope is that it is not the same study done at Woodbriar justifying the R-CUT. If that is the case, the city/state clearly has a problem with their methods of inquiry.”
Psalmond Road didn’t meet standards for a traffic light based on traffic volumes. According to traffic counts from the Georgia Department of Transportation, traffic volume is heaviest at 22,300 vehicles daily at Flat Rock Road and Beaver Run but drops to 18,800 at Psalmond Road.
Nearly blocking the intersection at Macon and Jenkins has made the area safer because you can’t cross the road anymore. The DOT is putting in two U-turn restrictions along Beaver Run Road. That makes one wonder whether the traffic concerns are double compared to those down the road.
If you have seen something that needs attention, give me a call at 706-571-8576.